1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the credit card industry. More particularly, the present invention relates to an interactive credit card including intelligent circuitry and read/write data storage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Credit cards were initially an embossed metal plate used to address bills to a customer at the time of a purchase. Credit cards have evolved to the now standard magnetic strip card, such as used by Bank of America (VISA). The relative ease with which magnetic strip credit cards can be illegally manufactured and distributed have made them the target of increasing criminal activity.
The banking industry is suffering large losses due to the fraudulent use of credit cards. The losses are increasing at such a rate that the use of magnetic strip credit cards may be stopped by some institutions. There has been considerable research by organizations such as Battelle, SRI, Malco, and others to solve such problems that relate to the use and misuse of magnetic strip credit cards.
One approach is to encode optical information in the form of a hologram onto the card's surface to store significantly more information than present magnetic strips allow. The optically encoded information is not alterable or readily readable without expensive equipment. In contrast, magnetic strip cards are readily altered and read by simple audio recording equipment. A disadvantage of the optical card is that it is a static memory device that may not be written to and that contains no "intelligence" for performing calculations or carrying account values and alterable passwords.
Another proposed solution to the problem of credit card fraud is to install an integrated circuit into a credit card substrate. Such a circuit might include a microprocessor and a memory area, viz. a microcomputer system on a credit card. Experimental cards of this type are in use in France and are manufactured by companies such as CII-Honeywell Bull and Philips. Such cards are often unreliable, in large part due to the need for metallic contacts to couple the card to a card reader. Such contacts are readily tarnished, have a short useful life, and require a precision card reading mechanism. The circuitry within the card is produced according to CMOS integrated circuit technology. As a result, cards containing such circuitry are often damaged by static electricity transferred to the circuitry by the metallic contacts. Such cards are expensive to manufacture, requiring complicated multiple bonding and encapsulating steps. Additionally, connections between the contacts and the circuit within the card are easily broken by flexing of the card, e.g. within the pocket of the card user.